Form or Function? The Never-Ending Debate
For years, the distinction between website building and website design has caused disagreement in schools: Should we teach students how to design an aesthetically pleasing website or how to implement the technical aspects of a site?

Reaching for the Heart: Five Tips for District Communications Directors
Today, press releases and strategic presentations to special groups are only a small part of the positive media attention thats possible. Learn how school districts can use social media tools to connect with the global audience, circumventing the traditional media to get the real story out there.

Teaching and Learning
About Technology
Find out what techies do during the summer -- and learn how you can use your vacation time to improve your computer skills and build your tech confidence. Included: More than two-dozen links to conferences, courses, workshops, online training, and more for both techies and classroom teachers.

Show is Better than Tell
Helping all students learn from computer textbooks means changing how those textbooks are written. At least that's what one Department of Education study discovered. Learn what computer teachers who work with students with special needs had to say about illustration-based classroom materials. Included: Information about how you can participate in a follow-up study.

Susan Patrick on the National Educational Technology Plan
Recently, Susan Patrick, director of the DOE's Office of Educational Technology, talked with Education World about the vision of the National Educational Technology Plan -- and responded to its critics. Included: Share your opinion about the report.

NETP Offers Action Steps for Success?
On Friday, January 7, 2005, the U.S. Department of Education unveiled the National Education Technology Plan. Find out how NCLB started the ball rolling, why today's students are different, and what the DOE says educators must do to meet the needs of today's students. Included: Exclusive comments from National Educational Technology Director Susan Patrick.

Videoconferencing Deserves a Second Look!
Better and cheaper technology, combined with the rapidly growing availability of videoconferencing sites, have made this learning tool affordable and accessible to most K-12 classrooms. In this Education World interview, videoconferencing expert Jan Zanetis shares tips and cautions for making your first videoconference a real success.

Online Projects Are for Everyone:
Jennifer Wagner, online project guru, talks about how she first got interested in online projects, and shares tips for selecting the best online project for your classroom. Included: Half a dozen links to online project resources.

Technology Planning: Closing the Communications Gap
Technology is often underutilized in its role of helping educators track accountability and assess student progress. Technology planning expert Dixie Conner explains how effective technology planning by teachers and technology leaders can result in the more effective use of technology in all areas of education.

Keep Your Computer Healthy
As winter flu season approaches, many of us head to doctors offices to be inoculated against the insidious viruses that threaten our physical health. How many of us, however, remember to visit a tech specialist to inoculate our computers against the insidious pests that threaten to infect them year round. Too busy for an office visit? Education World makes house calls!

Better Students Through Technology!
Technology-planning expert Dixie Conner explains how technology coordinators, by extending the use of technology beyond the classroom, can increase students chances to reach -- and surpass -- today's stringent education standards.

Same Time, This Year
Last year, members of the Education World Tech Team reported on what they felt were the major roadblocks to full-scale technology integration in their schools. This year, they report on the progress -- or lack of progress -- they've seen during the past 12 months.

Encouraging Teachers to Use Your School's Network
By guest editor Kerry Fraser
"Encouraging Teachers to Use Your School's Network," by Kerry Fraser, is reprinted from the July 2000 issue of the Fraser Report on K-12 Technology, a newsletter designed to help administrators and technology coordinators guide and support their teachers' use of technology. The article looks at strategies to encourage teachers to exploit all the opportunities a network creates.

And in This Corner ... The 'High-Tech Heretic'!
This is the e-interview that every educator will want to read! Clifford Stoll is the author of High-Tech Heretic: Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections by a Computer Contrarian. He is also an MSNBC commentator, a Berkeley astronomer, an Internet pioneer, and a "full time, stay-at-home dad." This week, Stoll shares with Education World readers his controversial thoughts about computers in the classroom.

Librarians Online!
With so much of the world's information online, today's librarian has been transformed into a media specialist with a specialty in online information access -- a cyber-librarian or "cybrarian"! Included: The best resources to aid cybrarians in their quest to make information accessible to all!

Kathy Schrock: An Educator's Best Friend!
Technology guru Kathy Schrock explores the Net to find the best sites for educators. In this exclusive Education World interview, Schrock talks about how she got started, and about the books and the Web site that she has created to help teachers work the Internet into their lessons.